Howling at the Moon
by lunaerum
Summary: After the war, when it looks like the Magical World would rather tear itself apart than reform, Andromeda begins to quietly make plans to leave. The war had taken too much from her: she wouldn't let it take anyone else. Eventually, she takes her family to Beacon Hills, where the town's Alpha can hopefully help with controlling the werewolf manifesting in Teddy.


**Disclaimer** : Don't own anything but the fic idea/writing.

 **Summary** : After the war, when it looks as if the Wizarding World would rather tear itself apart than reform, Andromeda begins to quietly make plans to leave. The war had taken too much from her: she wouldn't allow what came after to take her grandson or to drag her pseudo–nephew to fight for them again. Eventually, she takes her family to Beacon Hills, a town under a wolf–pack protectorate, whose Alpha can hopefully help with controlling the werewolf manifesting in Teddy.

 **Warning(s)** : N/A.

 **Enticements** : Family fluff, Andromeda being a mother/aunt–figure to Harry, werewolf courting, Harry being oblivious, scent marking, misunderstandings, pre–Hale fire/no Hale–fire & large Hale family, Claudia lives, pre–Gerard's attack on Deucalion and his pack/no attack on Deucalion and his pack, alternate worldbuilding for magical America, canon divergence wrt Malia living with the Hales & as a result exasperated Wine Dad Peter Hale … probably more to come.

 **Relationships** : Andromeda & Harry, Teddy & Harry, Andromeda & Teddy, Talia/Papa Hale, Claudia/Sheriff, Peter/Harry?, Peter/Harry/Deucalion? … I can't decide but I love the idea of Harry being courted by two werewolves. Let me know what you think via review?

The & denotes a platonic and/or familial relationship.

 **(Full Fic) Timeline** : This fic is DH but not epilogue compliant and takes place pre–canon for TW. The fic takes place in 2002 and follows canon (mostly) wrt to ages for both HP and TW. For the ages I couldn't look up, I guestimated or just made them up. Here's the Run Down:

 _For HP_ : Harry is 22, Teddy is 4, and Andromeda is 49. Hermione and Ron will probably eventually make an appearance and they would be 23 and 22 respectively.

 _For TW_ : Derek is 12, Laura is 18, and Peter is 29. Malia, Stiles, and Scott are 7. Cora is 9. Talia is 45 and Papa Hale is 52. The Sheriff (who'll be a Deputy for the first part of this fic) is 33 and Claudia is 31. Derek mentions that there were 11 Hale members in the house when it caught on fire (and in this fic, since Malia is apart of Peter's life early on, she would count as one of the Hales), so there will be six Hale OCs. So Derek will have a Grandma (71), a younger brother (5), another uncle (36), an aunt (38), and two younger cousins (10 ; 6). I haven't figured out their names yet. But I will. Eventually. Deucalion is 41. Deaton and Morrell? Who even knows.

 **Dedication** : This fic is dedicated to Mella, who is draeden over on tumblr! Thank you for putting up with all of my awkward ramblings, I hope you like it.

* * *

 **Chapter One** : _Trouble Brewing on the Horizon_

Please be sure to leave a review if you liked the story!

Nothing changes after the war is over.

* * *

People move on, bury their loved ones, and return to the same damning behavior that led to the rise of Voldemort within months of the final battle. Prejudice and tension between muggleborns and purebloods only gets worse as time goes on as the social norms that enabled Voldemort to recruit bigoted purebloods in the first place remain entrenched in wizarding society. For better or for worse (and despite the benefits, Harry is leaning towards _worse_ ), after the war every pureblood still in England is accused of being a Death Eater, despite any lack of proof. With fear–mongering at a high, the Ministry is able to capture nearly every remaining Death Eater who had escaped custody after the war within a year and a half.

As far as Harry's concerned, that's the _only_ good that comes after the war. Even with nearly every Death Eater still in England was answering for their crimes (and whether this meant Azkaban or house arrest under Auror supervision, as had happened for the Malfoy family, was dependant of the severity of the crime), the fear–mongering hadn't stopped. With _The Daily Prophet_ regularly running articles inciting the masses with titles like ' _Is There a Death Eater in YOUR Garden Shed?'_ the realistic fear of the very dangerous Death Eaters still at large turned into the somewhat irrational fear (and sometimes hatred) of all purebloods.

Personally, Harry doesn't think muggleborns are _wrong_ for fearing purebloods, not after what so many of them faced during the war, with the Muggle–Born Registration Commission being fresh in the minds of many. And Harry can't really jump on any high horse, because he'd grown up with the Dursleys and his situation was far better than many of the muggle–borns who had suffered under Voldemort's regime, but he'd still grown up hating _them_. And realistically, the fear that purebloods faced from muggle–born wasn't nearly the same as the prejudice that muggle–borns faced from purebloods. But the Ministry was still corrupt, even under Shacklebolt, and officials used the fear of purebloods to raid ancestral homes or seize properties and assets without cause in the name of protecting the Wizarding World. This then, in turn, caused prejudice against muggle–borns by purebloods to be on the rise, because many blamed the average muggle–born for the illegal raids, even when it was absurd. Especially since the Ministry had very few muggleborn officials and that most of them were half–bloods or purebloods.

But acknowledging that would be to acknowledge that perhaps everything _wasn't_ the fault of muggle–borns, which was proving time and time again very hard for purebloods to do.

But what did Harry know?

He hadn't spent much time in the Wizarding World after the war, taking up Andromeda's offer to stay with her as she raised Teddy. With nowhere else to go (as staying with the Weasleys was out, as they had enough to deal with and he wasn't even sure he'd be _welcome_ , because he and Ginny had never gotten back together after the war as they'd planned and 5 Grimmauld Place would be the last resort for him, as Harry had no desire to stay in that gloomy house), he'd settled in at the Tonks family home helping as much as he could with his godson. As such, he hadn't spent much, if any, around any other witches or wizards (that weren't Ron & Hermione or the extended Weasley family), preferring to stay at home with Teddy while Andromeda worked, who insisted that doing so helped to maintain some sense of normality.

So no, Harry hadn't spent much time in the Wizarding World, especially not since the first time he'd went into Diagon Alley after the war and dozens of people had crowded around him, wanting to touch his skin, his hair, his clothing, wanting his autograph, wanting to speak with him … It had been a nightmare and Harry had quickly apparated away when Teddy had started to fuss, not liking being surrounded by so many people.

But the _The Daily Prophet_ still arrived everyday, even if the news wasn't much more more than gossip and deception. The headlines were always, without fail, inciting the masses to believe that Death Eaters were still among the populace or that Azkaban wasn't secure and the real news was always hidden in small little blurbs throughout the paper, short articles that talked about attacks on muggle–borns, Ministry–sanctioned raids on purebloods, and new questionable laws being passed.

It wasn't the violent and overt rise to power that Voldemort had succeed in doing when Harry was seventeen, but Harry was worried that when all was said and done, the Wizarding World may not be much different.

* * *

Andromeda isn't stupid.

One doesn't survive two wars, when so many others hadn't, when her own _family_ – her husband, her daughter, her son, because that's what Remus was in the end and it hurt all the same for Andromeda to lose him, to lose all _three_ of them – by being _stupid_.

Above all else, Andromeda is a Black and a Slytherin. These two traits mean that she's slow to love and quick to plan. When she'd been at Hogwarts, she was known for being cold. Bella was the wild one, Cissa was the beautiful one, but Andromeda?

She was the cold one.

It didn't help that she didn't agree with the idea that anything less than a pureblood was inherently inferior (not that she could ever voice _that_ opinion, not when she lived for over half of the year in the company of blood elitists and her parents could make her live a living hell by marrying her off to someone she'd never love) or that she had little patience for the games her housemates would play that masqueraded as 'making connections.'

Which isn't to say she hadn't made connections, but she'd made _real_ ones – by endearing herself to her Arithmancy professor, who in turn introduced her some of his professional contacts. She'd had a plan as a sixth year – to go into the field after graduation and make enough money to not depend on her family before breaking off her ties with them, but that plan fell to pieces when she'd gotten to know Ted, and had fallen in love with him.

Though it had taken the better part of a year for her to fall in love with Ted, once she had she knew that wouldn't ignore her love for him nor would she hide it from anyone. She was a Slytherin and a Black, and she wasn't ashamed to be in love. Instead of hiding, she'd planned and planned and planned, so that when she and Ted eloped, she'd had enough powerful people behind her (and enough money) that they could not only survive on their own, but that her parents wouldn't try to take any action against them besides disowning her, which she had expected.

Ted had never understood her need to plan nor the need to have a solution for every feasible problem. But he hadn't grown up in the House of Black and besides – he'd been a Ravenclaw. Though extraordinarily cunning, he'd never had the desire to understand high society, nor did Andromeda think it was necessary for him to, as he'd loved her and she'd loved him as well. Though they showed it in different ways, they had loved each other fiercely and so Ted had (lovingly) tolerated as she planned out both of their careers and laughed when she'd had to adjust those plans when Dora had come along.

She'd planned out Dora's life in the beginning, though those plans were no match for her daughter as she'd gotten older. With Dora and Ted in her life, she found that her frigid nature that she'd worn like an armor during Hogwarts had disappeared completely. But that was no surprise – she'd had no need for it amongst the family she'd made. But when the Second Wizarding War had come, two very different instincts had warred within her – the instinct to flee and save her family versus the instinct to stay and try her best to keep them safe. Eventually she and her family had chosen to stay and planned then as well, but nothing could have accounted for the war ending as it had and taking her not only husband, but her daughter and her son as well.

Now, with nearly every member of her family dead and gone, she was left to take care of her grandson – Harry too, as the boy had become something like a nephew to Andromeda, more so than _Draco_ , who Andromeda never got the chance to know. This time, however, as trouble brewed on the horizon, Andromeda wouldn't allow her plans to even falter, let alone fail.

She had lost almost everything in this last war, but she wouldn't let what was to come even touch Teddy or Harry.

* * *

Usually Andromeda came home for lunch. She worked as an freelance Arithmancer, which as far as Harry could tell was some sort of magical accountant/scientist who divined the success of businesses and various other things based on numerology, though he'd kind of of spaced out while she was giving a description of what she did. But because she was a freelance Arithmancer, she set her own hours and more often than not she'd come home for lunch, preparing something for the three of them. Harry had long given up on trying to protest the need for her to make _him_ something, because despite all odds, he _could_ fend for himself, but doing so just resulted in uncanny twin skeptical looks from both Teddy and Andromeda.

Harry was fairly positive that Teddy didn't know what he looking skeptical of in the first place and that he was just mirroring his grandmother's expressions. Regardless, it was pretty adorable either way.

But even though Andromeda might think differently, he _was_ capable of taking care of himself and his godson, especially since all Teddy wanted recently for lunch was dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets. With Andromeda's modern muggle amenities in the house, that was simple enough to do. So while it was somewhat odd that Andromeda didn't come home for lunch to cook the three of them a 'proper' meal, they'd made it without her. So while it was, admittedly, a bit strange for Andromeda to skip coming home for lunch, it wasn't _unheard_ of.

And even if Harry couldn't remember the last time Andromeda hadn't come home for lunch that didn't mean a thing. It didn't mean that something had happened to Andromeda and it didn't mean she was hurt – or _worse_. It couldn't mean that, because Harry wasn't sure what he'd do if it turned out something _had_ happened to Andromeda.

Regardless of Andromeda's reasons for not coming home, Harry and Teddy spend the rest of the day together and somehow manage to stay out of trouble. After the lunch hiccup, Harry and Teddy spend some time outside playing tag, and when that exhausts his godson, they settle back inside for a quick nap (which Teddy, of course, denies needing). To convince the boy that taking a nap isn't just for babies, Harry takes on with him – and embarrassingly enough, manages to fall asleep for real.

That's how Andromeda finds them – on the couch, Teddy laying on Harry, both of them knocked out. But perhaps it's not very fair to say she'd found them, as Andromeda hadn't gotten much farther than the foyer when Teddy jolts awake, in turn waking Harry, and sleepily turning his head to where his nose says Andromeda is.

"Gr'ndma?"

Still a bit groggy (which is still such a strange but delightful experience, after the tension of the war), Harry can't do much but grunt when Teddy jumps down from his perch on Harry's stomach, managing to somehow elbow Harry in the solar plexus at the same time, to scurry towards Andromeda. It takes him a moment to catch his breath, but once he does, he too rises from his place on the couch, but freezes immediately when he sees the solemn look on Andromeda's face. When she notices him staring, she shakes her head and focuses her attention on Teddy, solemn look gone in favor of a fond one directed solely at her grandson. Harry just takes it to mean that the two of them will talk about it after Teddy's gone to bed.

"There's my grandson!" Andromeda says, all smiles, bending to pick Teddy up and hold him close – a stark contrast from how grim she'd looked when she'd walked inside the house. "And what'd you have for lunch today, hmm? Did you eat some vegetables?"

Teddy giggles in Andromeda's arms and immediately and unknowingly throws Harry to the wolves. "No! We had chicken nuggets and chips!"

When Andromeda turns to Harry with a mock–disappointed expression, all Harry can do is smile sheepishly, pushing aside his worry about what could have possibly caused Andromeda to look so serious upon walking inside the house.

"Well, how are you going to get big and strong if you don't eat your vegetables?" Andromeda asks, mostly joking, to her chortling grandson.

"I don't want to be big and strong!" Teddy immediately replies, laying his head on Andromeda's shoulder and gripping the fabric of his grandmother's robes. "Then you and Harry wouldn't be able to carry me."

"Ah!" Harry says from his awkward position half–standing behind the couch, smiling when Andromeda turns to look at him and Teddy raises his head from her shoulder, eager to see what his godfather has to say. "But then you would be able to carry us!"

Teddy's resulting expression – half astonished and half flabbergasted – when he comprehends what Harry has said is at once both hilarious and adorable. Luckily, he's a good sport when Andromeda and Harry begin to laugh and eventually, starts to laugh along with them – even if Teddy didn't really understand why they were all laughing in the first place.

Although Andromeda hadn't taken a lunch break, she _had_ come home at her usual time, which meant that after cuddling with her grandson, she was able to prepare dinner (and at this point, she doesn't even humor Harry when he tries to ask if he could help and simply levels a stare at him which is, quite frankly, much more terrifying than any of Professor Snape's glares), they were all able to eat, and after some time spent lounging in the great room while Teddy played with his stuffed animals, Andromeda and Harry put Teddy to bed.

As they make their way up to Teddy's room, Teddy in Harry's arms and very tired no matter how much he protests, three of them are all smiling and light–hearted, and in an effort to quash any arguing about how his godson really _isn't_ tired, Harry and Andromeda both promise to read Teddy two stories each. It's an effort in acting to behave normally and like nothing is wrong, especially when all Harry can remember is Andromeda's solemn expression when she'd entered the foyer.

Once they're sure Teddy is asleep, Andromeda and Harry head downstairs and gather around the small eat–in kitchen table. Harry sits at the table gingerly, unwilling to disrupt the tentative peace that had been brought on by the need to protect Teddy. Across from him, Andromeda sits, gripping her half–empty mug like her life depends on it, and Harry watches as she visibly droops, benign and joyful expression turning into something that's not so much serious as it is tired.

Worried, Harry is just about to ask if she's alright when Andromeda speaks.

"The Ministry is going to begin registering werewolves," she says – and everything in Harry goes cold, even as Andromeda continues to speak. "There's not many of them here after the war, but the Ministry hardly cares. I only caught wind of the rumor today, but legislature is sure to follow. No one I asked thinks it'll go any further than registration, but –"

Here, she cuts herself off and looks down at the table, where her hands are gripping a mug very tightly. Harry wonders if she's thinking about the Muggle–Born Registration Commission and how her husband had to go on the run because of it. How Ted had _died_ because of it.

Harry knows he is.

"Can we take that risk?" Andromeda asks softly. "If we stay here and werewolves are registered, can we be sure that they won't try to register Teddy?" Because while Teddy hasn't yet turned on the full moon, his senses were abnormally heightened, even for a magical child and just last month his eyes had changed to a startling piercing gold that the boy hadn't been able to change, not even when Harry or Andromeda asked him to. "Can we stay here and take that risk?"

"No." Harry says it immediately, without thinking. Even if werewolf registration was entirely benign, there was the off–chance that it wouldn't be and that was a chance that they couldn't take. Even if the registration never came to fruition, it was better to be safe, move now, then possibly move back than to stay and possibly end up harming Teddy through inaction.

"No," He repeats, slower this time, trying to think of all the preparations needed before they had to leave. "No, we can't."

* * *

It doesn't take them long to pack up and leave England behind.

They don't exactly have the luxury of waiting and taking their time. Every moment spent packing and getting their affairs in order was another moment that the Ministry was closer to passing laws to enforce werewolf registration.

In the end, it takes them a week to pack up and leave. All of Harry's meager belongings fit inside one of the old trunks at the Tonks house (he'd been afraid to ask who it had belonged to when Andromeda had given it to him to replace his own trunk as the possibility of it belonging to Tonks or Ted were high) and while Teddy had an inordinate amount of things (mostly toys, mostly gifted to him by Harry), it took barely a day to pack him all up. Andromeda took care of packing her own things, and Harry let her without asking if he could help, figuring that she'd be going through her husband's and her daughter's things and that she'd rather have him keep Teddy busy that witness any breakdowns she may or may not have had.

What takes them the longest is deciding where to go. They had a wealth of choices considering all of the Potter and Black properties Harry had access to. In the end, after Andromeda researches and they talk it out, they decide to go to America, the one of the few countries that neither the Potters nor the Blacks had properties in. The country was the most accepting of magical creatures, while still maintaining a proper government. Magical Russia and Magical Bulgaria were also very accommodating towards magical creatures, but their governments were corrupt in a way that Magical Britain's iept Ministry could never be. While set–up very differently from Magical Britain (and perhaps this was a _good_ thing, considering the state of their Ministry), the American magical government did it's very best to protect its citizens, whether or not they were fully human.

With them packed up, a location decided, only the financial and legal matters remained. Harry had insisted on paying for their new house, having too much money and nothing to do with it, but Andromeda had only agreed if Harry would let her take care of everything else. Seeing as Harry had no desire no get all of their travel papers together, to talk to the American magical government, and the bills at their new house would hopefully not be too much money, Harry had agreed.

And it's a good thing he did. Through Gringotts, Andromeda was able to get a rush on their travel papers, cutting their waiting time down from months to three days. Contact with the Ministry was rendered unnecessary, as Andromeda had the brilliant idea for them to travel the Muggle way, which had the added benefit of cloaking their movement in case the Ministry had the bright idea of trying to stop them.

Saying goodbye to their remaining friends took only a day. Because their departure had to remain discreet and because neither Andromeda and Harry had many remaining friends, they simply went to the Burrow for the day under the guise of having a playdate for Teddy and baby Victoire. There, while Andromeda talked with Molly and Arthur, Harry had spoken to Ron and Hermione – told them of the rumored impending werewolf registration and why he couldn't risk it coming to fruition and it ruining Teddy's life. Ron and Hermione, busy with their own lives in a way that Harry really wasn't (especially considering the fact that his job was being a glorified baby–sitter for Teddy), had listened and hadn't been nearly as upset as Harry had feared. More than that, they had _understood_ why he had to leave with Andromeda and his godson, and didn't think of the impromptu meeting as a goodbye – so much as a _see–you–later_.

They were right, once Harry stopped to think about it. Leaving now didn't mean he would never see his best friends again. It just meant that he might not see them for awhile.

After all of that, the packing, the travel papers, saying goodbye – that left them (or rather Andromeda and Harry, as Teddy was asleep) on a plane to New York, leaving their entire lives behind.

And as much as Harry loved flying on a broomstick, he couldn't say the same for flying in _planes_. But Harry would travel the ends of the Earth to keep Teddy safe, even if that meant flying for hours in a muggle metal deathtrap, even if it meant leaving his life behind to start over again in America.

Harry would do all of that and more to keep Teddy safe.

To keep what was left of his family _safe_.

* * *

So, I covered a lot of time in that last section, but believe me if I had written it out day by day it would've taken forever and it would have been a few chapters before Harry, Andromeda, and Teddy left. Because I did it this way, next chapter will be them talking with the American magical government, talking about their options, and picking where to live.

Let me know in a review what you guys think about the pairings!

* * *

My tumblr is lunaerum, feel free to give me a follow if you'd like!

Please R&R I'd love to know what you thought of this AU!


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